Leeza Gibbons Eliminated from Dancing with the Stars

Leeza Gibbons, former television talk show host turned temporary ballroom dancer, was the third star to be eliminated from ABC's popular dance reality series, Dancing With The Stars, on the show's Tuesday night elimination show.

Leeza, who celebrated her fiftieth birthday while on the series, struggled with the dances from the beginning of the series. While judges cited that she was too restrained, audience members such as pop star Robbie Williams claimed that Leeza merely had "lazy feet." Leeza seemed to redeem herself with the judges in week three with her tango, but fans seemed bored with the dance's lack of substance landing her in the bottom two.

The restraint this week cost her as audience members decided she would be the next to go. Her final dance, the Paso Doble, a dance meant to invoke the movement of a Spanish bullfight, failed to wow the judges. Once Leeza and her partner, Tony Dovolani, had received the judges marks for the dance, Leeza seemed resigned to the fact that she would be the next one to endure the axe.

The show, which is in its fourth season, has eliminated two stars so far. Model and author, Paulina Porizkova and former Miss USA, Shandi Finnessey. Tonight's elimination leaves the show with eight remaining couples.

During Monday's show, series judge Len Goodman, who also judges the original British version of the show, Strictly Come Dancing, admonished the stars for not putting in enough practice hours. According to Goodman, last year's stars averaged 19 practice hours each while this season's stars averaged only 13 hours. Last season's stars included winner Emmitt Smith, Joey Lawrence and Latin dancing dynamo, Mario Lopez.

Monday's show also received the stars some of the harshest criticism of the season, if not the run of the show. Tom Bergeron, the show's host, joked that the judges would most likely encounter some angry mothers and dancers after the show's end as John Ratzenberger's mother was seen booing the judges while Clyde Drexler, former NBA star, jokingly warned the judges that he'd want to see them after the show.

One dance, however, did manage to break away from the pack. Joey Fatone and partner, Kym Johnson, performed a Paso Doble that earned them a standing ovation and the highest score of the night, a 28 with the series' first 10 from judge Carrie Ann Inaba.

This season's shows can be viewed in their entirety by logging onto ABC.com.